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		<title>Instant Breaking News - Latest Updates</title>
		<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/</link>
		<description>Instant Breaking News Articles</description>
		<language>en</language>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Mar 2010 01:59:53 -0500</pubDate>

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			<title>New Technology to Lower Car Insurance</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Brand new site has been created to find the cheapest car insurance for where you live.&nbsp; It uses advanced technology to find the cheapest car insu[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Brand new site has been created to find the cheapest car insurance for where you live.&nbsp; It uses advanced technology to find the cheapest car insurance providers for your specific location, car, mileage, and driving history.&nbsp; 

The new site has been rated #1 for over 3 weeks now and user ratings have averaged 3.7/4.0.

Click here to check out the new car insurance site]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/752/New_Technology_to_Lower_Car_Insurance</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/752/New_Technology_to_Lower_Car_Insurance</guid>
			<pubDate>Sat, 20 Feb 2010 21:48:12 -0500</pubDate>
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			<title>Hacker cracks TinyURL rival, redirects millions of Twitter users</title>
			<description><![CDATA[A URL-shortening service that condenses long Web addresses for use on micro-blogging sites like Twitter was hacked over the weekend, sending millions[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[A URL-shortening service that condenses long Web addresses for use on micro-blogging sites like Twitter was hacked over the weekend, sending millions of users to an unintended destination, a security researcher said today.
After Cligs, a rival to the better known TinyURL and bit.ly shortening services, was attacked Sunday, more than 2.2 million Web addresses were redirected to Kevin Saban's blog, which appears on the Orange County Register's Web site. Noticing a dramatic upswing in traffic, Saban -- who uses Cligs in his Twitter messages to shorten URLs -- contacted Pierre Far, the creator of Cligs.
&quot;Quite curious,&quot; was how Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant with security company Sophos, put it. &quot;Our first thought was that it was a spam campaign, that the hack would redirect [users] to a porn site perhaps, but it seems that [Saban] was entirely innocent. Very bizarre.&quot;
Cluley's take was fueled by the assumption that the vast majority of criminal activity on the Internet is based on the profit motive, and here there didn't seem to be one. &quot;Maybe this was a mistake on the part of the hackers,&quot; he said. &quot;Maybe they just got the [shortened] URL wrong, and meant to direct users to a different site.&quot;
That site, he said, could have been a malware-infected address where exploits lay in wait. Or to a spam destination, since spammers have used shortened URLs
Cligs currently doesn't register in the top five shortening services used on Twitter, according to Tweetmeme, which ranks bit.ly and TinyURL in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots, so the hack could have been significantly worse if it had happened on one of those services.
Cluley's point: &quot;There was one single point of failure here,&quot; he said. &quot;They only had to hack one thing, the Cligs service, to affect millions of URLs.&quot;
Early yesterday, Cligs acknowledged the hack, which had exploited a vulnerability in its editing function. &quot;I've identified the hole and disabled all cligs editing for now and I'm restoring the URLs back to their original destination states,&quot; said Far, Cligs' creator, in a blog post. &quot;However, the most recent backup is from early May, and so we may have lost all URLs created since then. My daily backups with my host were turned off for some reason, which is another story.&quot;
Far said that the attacker's IP address resolved to a Canadian address.
Cluley, meanwhile, recommended that users install add-ons to their browsers that expand shortened links to see the actual, underlying destination. &quot;With short URLs, you don't know where you're going until you get there,&quot; he said. &quot;We recommend that you use an add-on which expands the URLs. You get a preview -- they're not 100% protection, of course, because legitimate sites can be infected as well -- but they're better than nothing.&quot;
Twitter, by far the biggest micro-blogging site and user of short URLs, should be doing more to keep users safe, Cluley said. &quot;There's an option to expand the link view when you search Twitter,&quot; he said. &quot;Why don't they offer that in the regular stream?&quot;]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/750/Hacker_cracks_TinyURL_rival,_redirects_millions_of_Twitter_users</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/750/Hacker_cracks_TinyURL_rival,_redirects_millions_of_Twitter_users</guid>
			<pubDate>Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:04:29 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>Twitter traffic growth stalls</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Growth for Twitter, the superhot San Francisco  microblogging startup, slowed significantly in May, according to the digital  traffic measurement fi[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Growth for Twitter, the superhot San Francisco  microblogging startup, slowed significantly in May, according to the digital  traffic measurement firm Compete.
Monthly unique visitors to Twitter rose a mere 1.47 percent, or 285,333, to  19.7 million between April and May, according to Compete. The number of visits  increased just shy of 7 percent.
That compares with an increase of monthly visitors of 5.4 million during  March and 6.1 million in February.
Compete&rsquo;s figures follow closely on the heels of a  controversial Harvard Business Review study that looked at  300,000 Twitter accounts and found the top 10 percent of Twitter users accounted  for over 90 percent of tweets, as postings on the service are called, while over  half of the account holders tweeted less than once every 74 days.
On a typical online social network, the top 10 percent of users account for  30 percent of all production, the study asserted.
At the same time, however, Twitter is proving its worth to some corporate  users, even though Twitter itself has not announced how it is going to try to  make money off its free service.
Dell Computer is reporting that since 2007 more than $3 million in sales have  come through its @DellOutlet account, either through direct purchases or by  channeling traffic to other Dell sites. @DellOutlet has more than 600,000  followers.]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/749/Twitter_traffic_growth_stalls</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/749/Twitter_traffic_growth_stalls</guid>
			<pubDate>Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:39:35 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>paidContent.org - Twitter, Facebook To Protect High-Profile Accounts, But What About Average Joes?</title>
			<description><![CDATA[What's in a screen name, Facebook profile or  Twitter account? Brand equity and integrity, for some; potential revenue streams  (from selling virtual[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[What's in a screen name, Facebook profile or  Twitter account? Brand equity and integrity, for some; potential revenue streams  (from selling virtual merchandise or account subscriptions) for others. Which is why the issue of  protecting someone's name?essentially their brand?across these various networks  has become such a hot topic. Baseball manager Tony La Russa is suing  Twitter, for example, because someone set up a phony account in his name and  posted &quot;derogatory and demeaning&quot; status updates (via  ESPN), and NFL quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had to deal with a fake  Facebook profile that claimed he had skin cancer (via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). So both sites are rolling  out new features aimed at making it easier for (some) people to claim and  protect their online identities:

?Twitter's  verified profiles: Twitter responded to reports that it had already settled the suit  with La Russa with a big fat no?but did acknowledge that its policy of finding  and deleting fake accounts needed improvement. So it has launched &nbsp;Verified  Accounts, which means that a Twitter rep has been  in contact with the person or organization behind the profile to make sure that  it's approved and real. The service is in beta; it also takes too much time  and money for Twitter to vet thousands of accounts, and is thus restricted to  &quot;well-known artists, athletes, actors, public officials, and public agencies&quot;  for the time being. The team says it's looking for ways to expand (and possibly  automate) the verification process in the future.
?Facebook restricts vanity URLs: Fake  Facebook accounts have always violated the social network's terms of service,  but news that people would  soon be able to grab an easy-to-remember profile link (like http://www.facebook.com/ContentNext instead of http://www.facebook.com/pages/ContentNext-Media-Inc/34051799215)  sparked concerns that impostors would snap up branded URLs that belong to  businesses or celebrities. So Facebook has already reserved some vanity URLs  for journalists (like Michael Arrington) and &quot;tens of thousands&quot; of business names,  according to CNET?meaning they won't have to try to rush and  register their names when the system goes live at 9:01 pm PST tonight.
Unfortunately neither network is protecting ordinary users?including  bloggers, small business owners and even certain lesser-known brands?from having  one aspect of their online identity hijacked. And even though the celebrities  and big companies are ideal targets for potential fee-based services, neither  Facebook nor Twitter would be able to attract high-profile users if &quot;average  Joes&quot; hadn't made the networks popular in the first place.
Staci adds I was one of the journalists whose name URL was reserved by  Facebook. In an e-mail yesterday, a Facebook rep explained the unsolicited  action for &quot;key journalists and outlets we work with&quot; (it also was taken for  brands): &quot;Because you're a visible public figure, we wanted to take the extra  step of reserving a name for you to help mitigate impersonation and so on.&quot; I  had the option of replying by a certain time to activate the URL  &quot;StaciKramer&quot;?chosen by Facebook, not me?when the feature goes live at 12:01  a.m. Saturday. I didn't take that option, and instead will go the &quot;first-come,  first-serve&quot; route, but my understanding is that URL remains on the restricted  list unless I ask to use it.]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/748/paidContent.org_-_Twitter,_Facebook_To_Protect_High-Profile_Accounts,_But_What_About_Average_Joes?</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/748/paidContent.org_-_Twitter,_Facebook_To_Protect_High-Profile_Accounts,_But_What_About_Average_Joes?</guid>
			<pubDate>Sat, 13 Jun 2009 17:36:38 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>Why Google Should Buy Twitter</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Over the last 15 months, I have been analyzing both Twitter (feeds and  search), and the Google &quot;real-time&quot; Search Options feature for Web[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Over the last 15 months, I have been analyzing both Twitter (feeds and  search), and the Google &quot;real-time&quot; Search Options feature for Web Search (many  months before release, a Search Options search box could be configured by  modifying the URL with its date-based variable). &nbsp;During this time, I have come  to the following three conclusions about the prospects of real-time social  search engines: &nbsp;1) The reality of the robust real-time search concept is much  closer than we think; 2) real-time search results have a number of common uses,  and are highly preferable over &quot;anytime&quot; search for a wide variety of search  tasks; 3) the best way for real-time social search to come to full fruition is  for Google to acquire Twitter, and add a social network layer to its  crawler-based real-time results.

The prospect of real-time social-search  is that it would fill in major gap in the search results, mainly in a shift that  might be best described as what is the best result right now, as  opposed to what is the best result over time. It's not necessarily a  question of which one is better than the other, but more about which one is more  suitable for a particular query and/or search intention. The likely best answer  is that the two would complement each other enough to provide a more complete  real-time search innovation. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

How Twitter's network can  enhance Google's real-time crawler-based search results
Providing a  historical answer (what is the &quot;best&quot; result over all network Web documents  produced any time) is what Google and the other major crawler-based engines  excel at, though of course it's not always perfect. &nbsp;While Google has produced  its blog engine, and other results  like Google News&nbsp; and Hot Trends&nbsp; to keep the  overall results fresher, its recently updated &quot;Search  Options&quot; &nbsp; featuring Web crawls from the last day, week and month have added  an important dimension to its results. &nbsp;&nbsp;Even within the daily or weekly  real-time Google crawl, there can still be a lot of noise, and this is where  Twitter could come in to add social relevancy to the mix. Both Google's Search  Options and Twitter have proven to be indispensible tools for finding new and  useful information, and together they would create a layer to the search  experience not possessed by any one engine. &nbsp;

The quality of the  real-time network-search experience hinges on keeping out spam - this could be a  problem for Twitter, and Google may have the solution
Part of the  reason that Twitter Search is useful now is because there is sparse presence of  spam in its results. &nbsp;In terms of being spam-free, this may be Twitter's Golden  Age; at least as far as hash tag search is concerned. &nbsp;But history shows us that  as serious spammers find a new hole, in this case finding out about the reach of  hash tags, URLs, keywords and other triggers, we should expect a lot more noise  in those streams to the point that it may ruin relevancy. &nbsp;I've personally been  seeing more spam on Twitter in the last few weeks than in the prior 15 months of  activity.
In the game of real-time search, controlling spam and assessing authority and  trust becomes more important. &nbsp;Google has excelled in getting spam out of the  results to increase relevance, and this is where they would be a great partner  with Twitter in terms of keeping their real-time results clean. &nbsp;Spamming in  Twitter is only going to get worse unless something drastic is done to combat it  (though it is worth noting that Google also has a human search quality review team  of thousands &nbsp; -- this may make them the first real human-powered social  search engine, but in a different way).
Twitter's data is also not currently being put to its best use in the current  iteration of Twitter Search, and other third-party engines are starting to get  more creative in the way the data is being presented. One Riot &nbsp; is one particular engine doing  innovative things with Twitter search. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Google Search Options and  Twitter search represent the two halves required for the whole success of  real-time social search. &nbsp;Google has the crawler, and algorithmic sense to  return a useful result. &nbsp;Twitter on the other hand, has the audience and data  that could enable the first true social layer to crawler based search, where  trusted users, much like trusted Web sites and links, are moving relevancy in  real-time.&nbsp;]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/747/Why_Google_Should_Buy_Twitter_</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/747/Why_Google_Should_Buy_Twitter_</guid>
			<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:24:12 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>What Twitter Traffic Flat? Must Be A Mistake</title>
			<description><![CDATA[It was only two months ago that we noted that in just one month Twitter had  added 5 million visitors to its site, doubling traffic. Now, data from Co[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[It was only two months ago that we noted that in just one month Twitter had  added 5 million visitors to its site, doubling traffic. Now, data from Compete  and Quantcast shows that Twitter traffic flattened last month&mdash;and may have even  fallen.
Granted Twitter still has traffic that any big media site would kill for. (To  make just one comparison: It&rsquo;s still greater than traffic to both the WSJ  and NYT sites). But it begs the question of when Twitter is going to roll  out some new features that would improve the site&rsquo;s user experience (and thus  it&rsquo;s well-documented user retention problem). Executives have said they are  looking into it. John Battelle, who pulled the Quantcast data, says not to  worry, predicting that &ldquo;Twitter will address this issue, and growth will resume,  but at a more moderate and sustainable pace.&rdquo;
Take a look at these numbers:
Twitter on Compete

Twitter on Quancast]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/746/What_Twitter_Traffic_Flat?_Must_Be_A_Mistake</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/746/What_Twitter_Traffic_Flat?_Must_Be_A_Mistake</guid>
			<pubDate>Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:09:38 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>What Is Blood Pressure And How To Control It</title>
			<description><![CDATA[What is the important thing for us?Health,but now more and more illness feazed us,today our ePathChina want to tell you What is blood pressure and how[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[What is the important thing for us?Health,but now more and more illness feazed us,today our ePathChina want to tell you What is blood pressure and how to control it.
We know that there have more and more people become fat than ever,and some young people have high blood pressure too.But due to we always think only old people have it,we ignore it.But also have many people buy a blood pressure monitor from our site. 
So today our ePathChina want to teach you some knowledge about high blood pressure. 
&nbsp;At first,what is high blood pressure? 
&nbsp;High blood pressure (HBP) is a serious condition that can lead to coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke, kidney failure, and other health problems. 
&nbsp;&quot;Blood pressure&quot; is the force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries as the heart pumps out blood. If this pressure rises and stays high over time, it can damage the body in many ways. 
&nbsp;Blood pressure numbers include systolic (sis-TOL-ik)
 and diastolic (di-a-STOL-ik) pressures. Systolic blood pressure is the pressure when the heart beats while pumping blood. Diastolic blood pressure is the pressure when the heart is at rest between beats. 
&nbsp;You will most often see blood pressure numbers written with the systolic number above or before the diastolic, such as 120/80 mmHg. (The mmHg is millimeters of mercury&mdash;the units used to measure blood pressure.) 
All levels above 120/80 mmHg raise your risk, and the risk grows as blood pressure levels rise. &quot;Prehypertension&quot; means you're likely to end up with HBP, unless you take steps to prevent it. 
&nbsp;If you're being treated for HBP and have repeat readings in the normal range, your blood pressure is under control. However, you still have the condition. You should see your doctor and stay on treatment to keep you blood pressure under control. 
&nbsp;Your systolic and diastolic numbers may not be in the same blood pressure category. In this case, the more severe category is the one you're in. For example, if your systolic number is 160 and your diastolic number is 80, you have stage 2 HBP. If your systolic number is 120 and your diastolic number is 95, you have stage 1 HBP. 
&nbsp;Second,if you have HBP,what should you do? 
&nbsp;We can through these method to controll our blood pressure. 
1.Reasonable meal 
To control the intake of energy, eat complex carbohydrates to promote,restriction of fat intake,adequate intake of protein,limit salt intake,eat much more fresh vegetables,fruit and &nbsp; &nbsp; 
appropriate to increase seafood intake. 
2.Regular exercise 
3.Limit alcohol and stop smoking 
4.Psychological balance.do not feel Tension, irritability, emotional instability. 
5.Go to callback on time. 
I think if you do it,your blood pressure will be controlled,but i think some people could not have time to callback.Young workers need to do work,old people are hard to go out to check. 

&nbsp;How to solve it? 
Now you can see lots kind blood pressure monitor on the market,so you can buy one and use it.It is easy to use,and no need your any time. 
Use it,you can know your blood pressure is high or low,and help you to constitute your plan. 
&nbsp;You can see blood pressure monitor at http://www.epathchina.com/home-health-care-medical-equipments-c-193_209.html
And we hope all of our consumers are healthy.]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/745/What_Is_Blood_Pressure_And_How_To_Control_It</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/745/What_Is_Blood_Pressure_And_How_To_Control_It</guid>
			<pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:23:17 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>Twitter Security Breached, Again</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Twitter seems to have gotten used to be always in the limelight now. Weeks after the Ashton Kutcher saga and news about Oprah Winfre[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Twitter seems to have gotten used to be always in the limelight now. Weeks after the Ashton Kutcher saga and news about Oprah Winfrey being too impressed, its time for some security related news. 

After the teenager-created Mikkey worm&nbsp; wrecked havoc in mid-April, another hacker, a French hacker by the screen name &quot;Hacker Croll&quot; has managed to break into Twitter's systems and sneak in information related to user accounts, including that of U.S. President Barack Obama's. In a display of arrogance, the hacker has posted screenshots of him viewing private details of the accounts-including details regarding the IP address of the user who accessed the account last.
The news has been confirmed by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. He, however, added that only 10 accounts were broken into and that none of the information in the accounts was altered or removed. The hacker accessed a Yahoo e-mail ID of a Twitter employee from where he got the password to gain access in to the Twitter systems. Earlier this year, another hacker had managed to break into high profile twitter accounts including that of Britney Spears and Barack Obama, who seems to be amongst hacker's favorite!]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/744/Twitter_Security_Breached,_Again</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/744/Twitter_Security_Breached,_Again</guid>
			<pubDate>Mon, 04 May 2009 15:36:35 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>Twitter's hot, sure, but what does it all mean?</title>
			<description><![CDATA[I'm sitting in my office listening to R.E.M. and pondering a piece on Twitter. My left leg is crossed over the right at the ankle. D[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[I'm sitting in my office listening to R.E.M. and pondering a piece on Twitter. My left leg is crossed over the right at the ankle. Do you care? 
That last paragraph contains about 140 characters, which is the most Twitter, the social network system, allows in an entry. 
Founded in 2006, Twitter is a free service with about 6 million users. Its monthly growth rate, according to Nielsen, is 1,382 percent. 
Or, as we say across all media platforms: Wow. 
Did you get that this story will be written in 140-character-or-fewer-chunks? Just like a Tweet, which is what Twitter entries are called. 
Many celebrities, politicians and some journalists use Twitter to talk directly, in real time, to their fans/constituents/readers/viewers. 
You can Tweet from your computer or your cell phone; some Twitterers go on all day about what they're doing, feeling, musing and eating. 
This might be very cool; &quot;the message system we didn't know we need until we had it,&quot; according to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. 
Or as Stephen Colbert said to Stone, just stupid; &quot;... like the answer to a problem we didn't know we had until I invented the answer.&quot; 
No matter, Twitter has supplanted Facebook as the online social networking phenomenon of the moment; the must-have application. 
But is perpetual immediacy, and a constant stream of short info-bursts, the best way to describe or experience the world around you? 
Or is Twitter the latest and, to put it ironically, greatest step in the stripping of meaning from news, information and social discourse? 
K103's John Erickson Twitters to &quot;commiserate&quot; with other pre-dawn DJs, and chat with listeners. &quot;It makes me feel like I have company.&quot; 
Portland public relations exec Christina Dyrness Williams said Twitter keeps her current on a variety of social and professional levels. 
&quot;It's my news wire, my water cooler,&quot; said Williams, who works out of her home. &quot;I'd say it's my social life, but that sounds too sad.&quot; 
Not to Stone and his Twitter co-founders, though. They're already fielding offers from massive companies eager to buy their business. 
Which is particularly compelling when you consider that Twitter, for all its millions of users, has no ads and produces no money. Yet. 
It is arguably the corporate version of a Tweet: New, flashy, full of potential. And valued more for what it might be than for what it is. 
&quot;There's a difference between profit and value,&quot; Stone says. &quot;Value to us is a strong, robust, worldwide network that (becomes) part of ...&quot; 
&quot;... everyday life for people, organizations and companies.&quot; At which point &quot;you have just so many opportunities for generating revenue.&quot; 
Intriguingly, it takes far more than 140 characters for Stone to explain how Twitter might, someday, make money. 
Whatever. For the rest of us it's more interesting to consider Twitter's cultural implications. In other words: To Tweet or not to Tweet? 
Instant, widespread communication can be transformative in global hot spots, rallying citizens even in the most repressive societies. 
When student photographer James Buck got arrested at a protest in Egypt, his one-word Tweet (&quot;arrested&quot;) beamed instantly to friends. 
Word moved quickly to the U.S. embassy in Egypt, which intervened with local authorities on Buck's behalf. His next Tweet: &quot;Freed.&quot; 
Politicians Tweet, too. Barack Obama (or someone on his staff) posted throughout his presidential campaign. That ended when he took office. 
Some members of Congress Tweet to keep in touch with their constituents. None of Oregon's reps seem all that into it, though. 
Earl Blumenauer posted a lot of bracing insider stuff from the Capitol this winter, but lately took a month-long break from Tweeting, until this week. 
The most famous Tweeter these days is TV star-slash-reality-show-producer Ashton Kutcher, who has nearly 1.5 million followers. 
Kutcher fought with CNN to top 1 million followers, and won. &quot;We can and will create our media,&quot; he said. &quot;We can and will edit our media.&quot; 
He went on: &quot;We can and will create our media; we can and will edit our media; we can and will censor our own media, ourselves.&quot; 
Kutcher media ranges from his tasks (&quot;tactical weapons training today,&quot;) to beliefs. (&quot;Everyone needs to chill out on the swine flu thing.&quot;) 
Don't even ask about the Tweets of Kutcher wife Demi Moore, an actress who has also become a fervent Twitterer. 
Here Moore is responding to a Tweet posted by singer Fred Durst: &quot;I am loving your love to your lady! It is been felt and shared.&quot; 
Which is nice, if not quite grammatical. And if Moore's feelings about Durst's feelings for his lady intrigue you, she Tweets regularly. 
Still, some Twitterers are smart, funny and readable. Some are people you've heard of (Matthew Perry, for instance). Others are unknown. 
Check out http://favrd.textism.com/most to see the day's funniest Tweets. I have no idea who compiles the list, or how, but it's cool. 
Sample: &quot;Some people say you have to drink eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy, but I think they're diluting themselves.&quot; 
That's by a guy named Dan Wineman, from North Carolina. 
Twitter may not be the future. It may not even have a future. But it's something. And for now, it's free. Tweet away. 
&nbsp;By Peter Ames Carlin, The Oregonian&nbsp; Twitter's hot, sure, but what does it all mean?]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/743/Twitter's_hot,_sure,_but_what_does_it_all_mean?_</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/743/Twitter's_hot,_sure,_but_what_does_it_all_mean?_</guid>
			<pubDate>Mon, 04 May 2009 07:27:45 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>President Obama's New Twitter Feed</title>
			<description><![CDATA[Update: The White House began tweeting around noon Eastern time on Friday. There&rsquo;s also a new whitehouse profile on MySpace. T[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[Update: The White House began tweeting around noon Eastern time on Friday. There&rsquo;s also a new whitehouse profile on MySpace. The usernames match those of the previously launched &ldquo;whitehouse&rdquo; accounts on YouTube and Flickr. The Obama administration has since announced its initiative as &ldquo;WhiteHouse 2.0.&rdquo;
Since the day Barack Obama took office as President, I&rsquo;ve urged him to keep up his eager use of Twitter. The fast-growing micro-blogging site had helped drive his campaign, both as a fundraising tool and as proof that the candidate had a firm grasp of the new, participatory Internet. But Mr. Obama&rsquo;s Twitter feed has only been updated twice since he took office on January 20th.
Good news: He&rsquo;ll be back, and soon, this time at twitter.com/whitehouse. What&rsquo;s funny is that the President&rsquo;s new feed has been hiding in plain sight since January: &ldquo;Welcome to the official Twitter page of the White House.&rdquo; Here&rsquo;s a screenshot from Thursday afternoon:
&nbsp;

&nbsp;









President Obama&rsquo;s staff is in the process of migrating his Twitter username from the campaign&rsquo;s &ldquo;BarackObama&rdquo; to the more Presidential &ldquo;whitehouse.&rdquo; The name change will allow White House staffers to do the President&rsquo;s tweeting for him without appearing disingenuous. The geeky use of all lowercase letters is a nice touch.
I&rsquo;ve been unable to confirm whether or not Mr. Obama will type some of the status updates himself. But even with two wars, an economic crisis and swine flu taking up his day, an occasional tweet from the world&rsquo;s best-known BlackBerry user would be a quick, easy, Web 2.0 version of FDR&rsquo;s fireside chats. I&rsquo;ve already clicked in my follow request.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/742/President_Obama's_New_Twitter_Feed</link>
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			<pubDate>Mon, 04 May 2009 07:27:41 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>W.H.O. Rasies Swine Flu Threat Level  1 away From Full Pandemic</title>
			<description><![CDATA[MEXICO CITY &ndash; Global health authorities warned Wednesday that swine flu was threatening to bloom into a pandemic, and the virus spread farther i[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[MEXICO CITY &ndash; Global health authorities warned Wednesday that swine flu was threatening to bloom into a pandemic, and the virus spread farther in Europe even as the outbreak appeared to stabilize at its epicenter. A toddler who succumbed in Texas became the first death outside Mexico.
New cases and deaths finally seemed to be leveling off in Mexico, where 160 people have been killed, after an aggressive public health campaign. But the World Health Organization said the global threat is nevertheless serious enough to ramp up efforts to produce a vaccine against the virus.
&quot;It really is all of humanity that is under threat during a pandemic,&quot; WHO Director General Margaret Chan said in Geneva. &quot;We do not have all the answers right now, but we will get them.&quot;
It was the first time the WHO had declared a Phase 5 outbreak, the second-highest on its threat scale, indicating a pandemic could be imminent.
The first U.S. death from the outbreak was a Mexico City toddler who traveled to Texas with family and died Monday night at a Houston hospital. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius predicted the child would not be the last U.S. death from swine flu.
The virus, a mix of pig, bird and human genes to which people have limited natural immunity, had spread to at least nine countries. In the United States, nearly 100 have been sickened in 11 states.
Eight states closed schools Wednesday, affecting 53,000 students in Texas alone, and President Barack Obama said wider school closings might be necessary to keep crowds from spreading the flu. Mexico has already closed schools nationwide until at least May 6.
&quot;Every American should know that the federal government is prepared to do whatever is necessary to control the impact of this virus,&quot; Obama said, highlighting his request for $1.5 billion in emergency funding for vaccines.
Just north of the Mexican border, 39 Marines were being confined to their California base after one contracted what may be swine flu. Senators questioned Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano about her decision not to close the border, action she said &quot;has not been merited by the facts.&quot;
Ecuador joined Cuba and Argentina in banning travel either to or from Mexico, and other nations considered similar bans. In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy met with cabinet ministers to discuss swine flu, and the health minister said France would ask the European Union to suspend flights to Mexico.
The U.S., the European Union and other countries have discouraged nonessential travel to Mexico. Some countries have urged their citizens to avoid the United States and Canada as well. Health officials said such bans would do little to stop the virus.
Germany and Austria became the latest countries to report swine flu infections Wednesday, with cases already confirmed in Canada, Britain, Israel, New Zealand and Spain.
In addition to the 160 deaths, the virus is believed to have sickened 2,498 people across Mexico. But only 1,311 suspected swine flu patients remained hospitalized, and a closer look at daily admissions and deaths at Mexico's public hospitals suggests the outbreak may have peaked during three grim days last week when thousands of people complained of flu symptoms.
Scientists believe that somewhere in the world, months or even a year ago, a pig virus jumped to a human and mutated, and has been spreading between humans ever since. Unlike with bird flu, doctors have no evidence suggesting a direct pig-to-human infection from this strain, which is why they haven't recommended killing pigs.
Medical detectives have not zeroed in on where the outbreak began. Mexico's chief epidemiologist suggested Wednesday that someone could have carried it in from Pakistan or Bangladesh &mdash; or just about anywhere else in the world.
By March 9, the first symptoms were showing up in the Mexican state of Veracruz, where pig farming is a key industry in mountain hamlets and where small clinics provide the only health care.
The earliest confirmed case was there: a 5-year-old boy who was one of hundreds of people in the town of La Gloria whose flu symptoms left them struggling to breathe.
Days later, a door-to-door tax inspector was hospitalized with acute respiratory problems in the neighboring state of Oaxaca, infecting 16 hospital workers before she became Mexico's first confirmed death.
Neighbors of the inspector, Maria Adela Gutierrez, said Wednesday that she fell ill after pairing up with a temporary worker from Veracruz who seemed to have a very bad cold. Other people from La Gloria kept going to jobs in Mexico City despite their illnesses, and could have infected people in the capital.
The deaths were already leveling off by the time Mexico announced the epidemic April 23. At hospitals Wednesday, lines of anxious citizens seeking care for flu symptoms dwindled markedly.
The Mexican health secretary, Jose Angel Cordova, said getting proper treatment within 48 hours of falling ill &quot;is fundamental for getting the best results&quot; and said the country's supply of medicine was sufficient.
Cordova has suggested the virus can be beaten if caught quickly and treated properly. But it was neither caught quickly nor treated properly in the early days in Mexico, which lacked the capacity to identify the virus, and whose health care system has become the target of widespread anger and distrust.
In case after case, patients have complained of being misdiagnosed, turned away by doctors and denied access to drugs. Monica Gonzalez said her husband, Alejandro, already had a bad cough when he returned to Mexico City from Veracruz two weeks ago and soon developed a fever and swollen tonsils.
As the 32-year-old truck driver's symptoms worsened, she took him to a series of doctors and finally a large hospital. By then, he had a temperature of 102 and could barely stand.
&quot;They sent him away because they said it was just tonsillitis,&quot; she said. &quot;That hospital is garbage.&quot;
That was April 22, a day before Mexico's health secretary announced the swine flu outbreak. But the medical community was already aware of a disturbing trend in respiratory infections, and Veracruz had been identified as a place of concern.
Gonzalez finally took her husband to Mexico City's main respiratory hospital, &quot;dying in the taxi.&quot; Doctors diagnosed pneumonia, but it may have been too late: He has suffered a collapsed lung and is unconscious. Doctors doubt he will survive.
Swine flu has symptoms nearly identical to regular flu &mdash; fever, cough and sore throat &mdash; and spreads like regular flu, through tiny particles in the air, when people cough or sneeze. People with flu symptoms are advised to stay at home, wash their hands and cover their sneezes.
While epidemiologists stress it is humans, not pigs, who are spreading the disease, sales have plunged for pork producers around the world. Egypt began slaughtering its roughly 300,000 pigs on Wednesday, even though no cases have been reported there. WHO says eating pork is safe, but Mexicans have even cut back on their beloved greasy pork tacos.
Pork producers are trying to get people to stop calling the disease swine flu, and Obama notably referred to it Wednesday only by its scientific name, H1N1. U.N. animal health expert Juan Lubroth noted some scientists say &quot;Mexican flu&quot; would be more accurate, a suggestion already inflaming passions in Mexico.
Authorities have sought to keep the crisis in context. In the U.S. alone, health officials say about 36,000 people die every year from flu-related causes.
Mexico's government said it remains too early to ease restrictions that have shut down public life in the overcrowded capital and much of the country. Pyramids, museums and restaurants were closed to keep crowds from spreading contagion.
&quot;None of these measures are popular. We're not looking for that &mdash; we're looking for effectiveness,&quot; Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said. &quot;The most important thing to protect is human life.&quot; 

Courtesy of new.yahoo.com]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/741/W.H.O._Rasies_Swine_Flu_Threat_Level__1_away_From_Full_Pandemic</link>
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			<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:59:33 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>Twitter Suffers from Disloyalty, Says Metrics Firm</title>
			<description><![CDATA[New Twitter users are a disloyal bunch, according to data from Nielsen Online, a metrics firm that measures Internet traffic.
More than 60 percent of[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[New Twitter users are a disloyal bunch, according to data from Nielsen Online, a metrics firm that measures Internet traffic.
More than 60 percent of new users fail to return to Twitter the following month after they sign up, according to a blog post by David Martin, Nielsen's vice president of primary research. Martin believes loyalty is a problem for Twitter, because despite Twitter's explosive growth in recent months, the number of Twitter's returning users -- the retention rate -- does not outnumber those giving up on Twitter after trying out the site. This could prove problematic, because while a high retention rates doesn't guarantee a site's success. it is a prerequisite for growth.
To support his assertion, Martin points out that both Facebook and MySpace had retention rates around 70 percent when they were emerging sites like Twitter is now, while Twitter languishes below 40 percent. Things have improved, though; before Oprah started tweeting and Ashton Kutcher took on CNN for Twitter dominance, Twitter's retention rate was below 30 percent.
While these numbers may sound troubling for Twitter's future, I think Nielsen could be way off base with this report. Martin didn't say how Nielsen came to these numbers, but if the evaluators simply determined Twitter's popularity by measuring visits to Twitter.com from Web browsers, then Nielsen's numbers are completely inaccurate. The reason is that unlike other social networks, Twitter's primary use is not really as a Website but an Internet-based communications service.
That may sound like Web 2.0 nonsense, but consider that once you've signed up for Twitter on its Website you could, theoretically, never visit Twitter via a Web browser again. That's a gigantic difference when you compare Twitter to Facebook and MySpace. For example, to really get the most out of your Facebook network you have to be on the site viewing photos, responding to messages, listening to music, playing games, and so on. It's true that you can access Facebook with an iPhone application and other programs, but the action you can take within those applications is limited. Ultimately, all Facebook actions lead you back to Facebook.com. Twitter, on the other hand, offers a personalized stream of text-only messages of 140 characters or less that can be accessed any number of ways.
Instead of visiting the Twitter Website, you can use one of the multitude of other access points like desktop or smart phone applications, browser add-ons, Gmail gadgets, and text messaging. This is possible because of Twitter's virtually wide-open application programming interface (API), which allows software developers to build Twitter applications that are designed to rob Twitter of Web traffic. TweetDeck, for example, is a desktop application that lets you send and receive messages, perform a Twitter search and even follow new people right from your desktop.
Granted, it's unlikely that a user would never visit Twitter's site, but with so many ways to access the service, daily visits to Twitter.com via a Web browser will automatically be reduced. So before we start writing Twitter off as a fad, Nielsen needs to explain how it compiled its data and whether it considered Twitter's open API in its research.]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/740/Twitter_Suffers_from_Disloyalty,_Says_Metrics_Firm</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/740/Twitter_Suffers_from_Disloyalty,_Says_Metrics_Firm</guid>
			<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:57:53 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>Sarah Jessica Parker And Matthew Broderick Expecting Twin Girls</title>
			<description><![CDATA[The Sex in the City star and famous actor are expecting to give birth to twin girls this summer 

&ldquo;Sex In The City&rdquo; actress Sarah Jessic[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[The Sex in the City star and famous actor are expecting to give birth to twin girls this summer 

&ldquo;Sex In The City&rdquo; actress Sarah Jessica Parker and her husband, actor Matthew Broderick, have turned to a surrogate mother to give birth to twin girls. The twins are expected to be delivered this summer and the Hollywood couple is reportedly ecstatic about the fact that they will be the parents to twin girls, according to The New York Post

. 

The couple has been extremely busy and will continue to be occupied with various career responsibilities in the coming months. Broderick just recently concluded a promotional tour that was conducted to generate hype for his new Broadway-type of show, which is entitled, &ldquo;The Philanthropist&rdquo; as well as his new film

, &ldquo;Wonderful World&rdquo;. 

Sarah Jessica Parker has been in the media spotlight recently due to the fact that shooting for the upcoming &ldquo;Sex In The City&rdquo; movie sequel is scheduled to start later this year. Interestingly enough, early rumors about the plot seem to hint that her character may be pregnant throughout the duration of the film. 

The couple initially attempted to have a child on their own but they eventually turned to a surrogate mother, who they will refuse to name publicly, to give birth to twins for them. A family friend commented on the couple&rsquo;s emotions, saying, &quot;They came to the conclusion that this was going to be the best alternative for expanding their family. They are over the moon, as any prospective parents would be. Their life is about to get a lot busier.&quot;]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/739/Sarah_Jessica_Parker_And_Matthew_Broderick_Expecting_Twin_Girls_</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/739/Sarah_Jessica_Parker_And_Matthew_Broderick_Expecting_Twin_Girls_</guid>
			<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:10:57 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>Restraining orders issued against former Britney Spears confidantes</title>
			<description><![CDATA[A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge has issued restraining orders against Britney Spears' former manager, Osama &quot;Sam&quot; Lutfi, and attorney Jon[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge has issued restraining orders against Britney Spears' former manager, Osama &quot;Sam&quot; Lutfi, and attorney Jon Eardley, prohibiting them from contacting the singer or her children for three years. The ruling caps a long and bitter legal battle, in which Jamie Spears, the pop star's father, argued that Lutfi and Eardley were undermining the court-ordered conservatorship that has overseen Spears' affairs for more than a year. Lutfi's attorney vowed to appeal the decision.]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/738/Restraining_orders_issued_against_former_Britney_Spears_confidantes</link>
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			<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:57:50 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>Mel Gibson hits the red carpet with girlfriend</title>
			<description><![CDATA[More than two weeks after his wife filed for divorce, a smiling Mel Gibson made a rare public appearance with his girlfriend Tuesday night at the L.A.[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[More than two weeks after his wife filed for divorce, a smiling Mel Gibson made a rare public appearance with his girlfriend Tuesday night at the L.A. industry screening of &quot;X-Men Origins: Wolverine.&quot;
&quot;Mel has been single for almost three years and it's nice to see him getting out and enjoying himself,&quot; his rep tells PEOPLE exclusively.
The actor, 53, dressed in a black suit with a dark gray shirt, stepped out with Oksana Grigorieva, a 39-year-old Russian signer signed to his record label, Icon Records. The couple held hands as they walked the carpet before taking a seat at the screening at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.

Mario Anzuoni / Reuters
Mel Gibson and Oksana Grigorieva arrive at an industry screening of &quot;X-Men Origins: Wolverine&quot; at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif., on Tuesday.]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/737/Mel_Gibson_hits_the_red_carpet_with_girlfriend</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/737/Mel_Gibson_hits_the_red_carpet_with_girlfriend</guid>
			<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:11:02 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>Apple Devices Coming Just for Verizon?</title>
			<description><![CDATA[For those who switched to AT&amp;T from Verizon in anticipation of the iPhone, now may be the time to switch back. According to two anonymous sources[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[For those who switched to AT&amp;T from Verizon in anticipation of the iPhone, now may be the time to switch back. According to two anonymous sources speaking to Business Week, Apple and Verizon may release two new Verizon-exclusive iPhone-like products as early as this summer. The rumors go hand-in-hand with recent talk that the iPhone is coming to Verizon, and that Apple has new devices up its sleeve for the summer.
&nbsp;
One device seems like it'll be the closest we'll ever get to the iPhone Nano: a smaller, less expensive iPhone. The iPhone Lite, as it's being called, is smaller and thinner than the existing iPhone and will come cheaper because it &quot;relies on a so-called system on a chip, which incorporates many types of chips and drives down the cost of silicon in such devices.&quot;

The other is a &quot;media pad&quot; that has the same functionality as an iPod Touch -- music, games, photos -- but with HD video and calling ability via a Wi-Fi connection. Sources tell Business Week that the device will be smaller than the Kindle 2, but with a larger touchscreen, paving the way for more speculation about Apple slinking into the eBook market. This might be the Apple Tablet everybody has been talking about.
&nbsp;
&quot;The media pad category might go to Verizon,&quot; a witness told Business Week. &quot;We are talking about a device where people will say, 'Damn, why didn't we do this?' Apple is probably going to define the damn category.&quot;
&nbsp;
All signs point to a burgeoning deal between Verizon and Apple because, 1) Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam told Business Week that he has spoken to Steve Jobs within the past six months even though Jobs is on medical leave; 2) Business Week isn't the type of publication to spread rumors; and 3) if Verizon wants Apple products, new products must be developed. Apple isn't about to renege on its iPhone exclusive deal with AT&amp;T, and the current iteration of the iPhone is on a GSM network and won't function on Verizon's CDMA network.

Courtesy of pcworld.com]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/736/Apple_Devices_Coming_Just_for_Verizon?</link>
			<guid>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/736/Apple_Devices_Coming_Just_for_Verizon?</guid>
			<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:00:01 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>US Economy: GDP Shrinks, Worst Recession in 50 Years</title>
			<description><![CDATA[The U.S. economy plunged again in the first quarter, making this the worst recession in at least half a century.
Gross domestic product dropped at a[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[The U.S. economy plunged again in the first quarter, making this the worst recession in at least half a century.
Gross domestic product dropped at a 6.1 percent annual pace, weaker than forecast, after contracting at a 6.3 percent rate in the last three months of 2008, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. The report, which reflected a record slump in inventories and further declines in housing, comes hours before Federal Reserve officials decide how much money to pump into the economy.
Smaller stockpiles may set the stage for a return to growth in the second half of the year amid signs Fed efforts to reduce borrowing costs and unclog lending are starting to pay off. The contraction persisted even as lower gasoline prices and larger tax refunds helped bring an end to the worst slump in consumer spending in almost three decades.
&ldquo;We are likely to emerge from this recession very slowly and the recovery will be very weak,&rdquo; said Richard Berner, chief U.S. economist at Morgan Stanley in New York. &ldquo;The aggressive policy response we have gotten will take time to work, but it will counter the still-strong headwinds holding the economy back.&rdquo;
Stocks rose for the first time in three days as bank shares rallied on an analyst report that non-performing assets will peak this year. The Standard &amp; Poor&rsquo;s 500 Index was up 2.1 percent at 872.76 as of 10:50 a.m. in New York. Treasuries were little changed, with benchmark 10-year notes yielding 2.99 percent.
Slump&rsquo;s Magnitude
The world&rsquo;s largest economy has shrunk 3.3 percent since peaking in last year&rsquo;s second quarter, already making this the second-worst recession since the Great Depression. GDP shrank 3.8 percent during the 1957-58 contraction, according to figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The median forecast of 71 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected GDP, the sum of all goods and services produced, would shrink at a 4.7 percent pace. Estimates ranged from declines of 2.8 percent to 8 percent. Today&rsquo;s advance report is the first of three estimates on first-quarter growth.
Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, climbed at a 2.2 percent annual pace last quarter, the most in two years. Purchases dropped at an average 4.1 percent rate in the last half of 2008, the biggest slide since 1980.
Part of the improvement may be due to government efforts to stem the recession. In its last meeting on March 18, the Fed pledged to double mortgage-debt purchases to $1.45 trillion and buy as much as $300 billion in long-term Treasuries. That&rsquo;s helped bring down rates on mortgages and auto loans.
Fed Statement
The central bank&rsquo;s statement today, due at around 2:15 p.m., may acknowledge that the pace of economic decline has moderated in the past six weeks and may reiterate it will keep the benchmark rate low for an extended period and continue to boost its balance sheet to revive lending.
&ldquo;Most people are saying we could bottom out in the second half of the year, maybe in the third quarter, and then see positive growth again,&rdquo; Christina Romer, the White House&rsquo;s chief economist, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. &ldquo;We&rsquo;re certainly looking for some positive news towards the end of the year.&rdquo;
Companies trimmed stockpiles at a $103.7 billion annual rate last quarter, the biggest drop since records began in 1947. Excluding the reduction, the economy would have contracted at a 3.4 percent pace.
Good and Bad
&ldquo;This is one of those good-bad numbers,&rdquo; Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors Inc. in Holland, Pennsylvania, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. &ldquo;Businesses are running about as lean as they possibly can be. It sets up the reality that any sort of increase in demand will cause firms to have to increase production.&rdquo;
As a result, Naroff predicted growth won&rsquo;t &ldquo;be nearly as bad in the current quarter, and will probably be reasonably good.&rdquo;
Companies cut total spending, including equipment, software and construction projects, at a record 38 percent annual pace.
Residential construction also decreased at a 38 percent pace last quarter, the most since 1980.
&ldquo;The hangover from the Bush administration is even worse than we thought,&rdquo; Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, said in a statement. &ldquo;These numbers reflect a drawdown in business inventories and continued weakness in the housing and commercial real estate markets. Americans are starting to spend more and I&rsquo;m optimistic that we will begin to see the effects of the stimulus next quarter.&rdquo;
Obama Stimulus
President Barack Obama signed a $787 billion stimulus plan into law in February that included increases in spending on infrastructure projects and a reduction in taxes.
One reason for the larger-than-projected decline in GDP was that government slashed spending at a 3.9 percent pace, the most since 1995. The drop reflected a cutback in defense spending and the biggest decrease in state and local government outlays since 1981, reflecting slumping tax revenue.
Recent announcements by companies including General Motors Corp. indicate the economy will shrink again this quarter, albeit at a slower pace. GM last week said it will idle 13 U.S. assembly plants for multiple weeks to trim production by 190,000 vehicles from May through July. Sales in its home market fell 49 percent this year through March.
Still, data in recent weeks, including signs of stability in home sales, residential construction and consumer confidence, signal the recession will ease.
Ford Motor Co., working to avoid a federal bailout, is among companies seeing some improvement. The automaker last week posted a first-quarter loss that beat analysts&rsquo; estimates.
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re not quite sure where the bottom is,&rdquo; Ford&rsquo;s Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally said in an April 24 Bloomberg Television interview. &ldquo;But we believe with the stabilization of the banks, freeing up the credit, and the stimulus packages we have, both monetary and fiscal, that we&rsquo;re going to see an uptick in the third and fourth quarter.&rdquo;
Source: By Bob Willis (Bloomberg)]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/735/US_Economy:_GDP_Shrinks,_Worst_Recession_in_50_Years</link>
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			<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:47:34 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>First US Swine Flu Death</title>
			<description><![CDATA[A 23-month-old Texas toddler became the first confirmed swine flu death outside of Mexico as authorities around the world struggled to contain a growi[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[A 23-month-old Texas toddler became the first confirmed swine flu death outside of Mexico as authorities around the world struggled to contain a growing global health menace that has also swept Germany onto the roster of afflicted nations.
&quot;Even though we've been expecting this, it is very, very sad,&quot; Dr. Richard Besser, acting chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday of the infant's death. &quot;As a pediatrician and a parent, my heart goes out to the family.&quot;
President Barack Obama said this morning that Americans should know the government is doing all it can to control virus. Obama also says schools should consider closing if the spread of the swine flu virus worsens.
Canada, Austria, New Zealand, Israel, Spain, Britain and Germany also have reported cases of swine flu sickness. Deaths reported so far have been limited to Mexico, and now the U.S.
As the United States grappled with this widening health crisis, Besser went from network to network Wednesday morning to give an update on what the Obama administration is doing. He said authorities essentially are still &quot;trying to learn more about this strain of the flu.&quot; His appearances as Germany reported its first cases of swine flu infection, with three victims.
&quot;It's very important that people take their concern and channel it into action,&quot; Besser said, adding that &quot;it is crucial that people understand what they need to do if symptoms appear.
&quot;I don't think it (the reported death in Texas) indicates any change in the strain,&quot; he said. &quot;We see with any flu virus a spectrum of disease symptoms.&quot;
Asked why the problem seems so much more severe in Mexico, Besser said U.S. officials &quot;have teams on the ground, a tri-national team in Mexico, working with Canada and Mexico, to try and understand those differences, because they can be helpful as we plan and implement our control strategies.&quot;
Sixty-six infections had been reported in the United States before the report of the toddler's death in Texas.
The world has no vaccine to prevent infection but U.S. health officials aim to have a key ingredient for one ready in early May, the big step that vaccine manufacturers are awaiting. But even if the World Health Organization ordered up emergency vaccine supplies &mdash; and that decision hasn't been made yet &mdash; it would take at least two more months to produce the initial shots needed for human safety testing.
&quot;We're working together at 100 miles an hour to get material that will be useful,&quot; Dr. Jesse Goodman, who oversees the Food and Drug Administration's swine flu work, told The Associated Press.
The U.S. is shipping to states not only enough anti-flu medication for 11 million people, but also masks, hospital supplies and flu test kits. President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1.5 billion in emergency funds to help build more drug stockpiles and monitor future cases, as well as help international efforts to avoid a full-fledged pandemic.
&quot;It's a very serious possibility, but it is still too early to say that this is inevitable,&quot; the WHO's flu chief, Dr. Keiji Fukuda, told a telephone news conference.
Cuba and Argentina banned flights to Mexico, where swine flu is suspected of killing more than 150 people and sickening well over 2,000. In a bit of good news, Mexico's health secretary, Jose Cordova, late Tuesday called the death toll there &quot;more or less stable.&quot;
Mexico City, one of the world's largest cities, has taken drastic steps to curb the virus' spread, starting with shutting down schools and on Tuesday expanding closures to gyms and swimming pools and even telling restaurants to limit service to takeout. People who venture out tend to wear masks in hopes of protection.
The number of confirmed swine flu cases in the United States rose to 66 in six states, with 45 in New York, 11 in California, six in Texas, two in Kansas and one each in Indiana and Ohio, but cities and states suspected more. In New York, the city's health commissioner said &quot;many hundreds&quot; of schoolchildren were ill at a school where some students had confirmed cases.
The WHO argues against closing borders to stem the spread, and the U.S. &mdash; although checking arriving travelers for the ill who may need care &mdash; agrees it's too late for that tactic.
&quot;Sealing a border as an approach to containment is something that has been discussed and it was our planning assumption should an outbreak of a new strain of influenza occur overseas. We had plans for trying to swoop in and knockout or quench an outbreak if it were occurring far from our borders. That's not the case here,&quot; Besser told a telephone briefing of Nevada-based health providers and reporters. &quot;The idea of trying to limit the spread to Mexico is not realistic or at all possible.&quot;
&quot;Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work,&quot; WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in Geneva, recalling the SARS epidemic earlier in the decade that killed 774 people, mostly in Asia, and slowed the global economy.
Authorities sought to keep the crisis in context: Flu deaths are common around the world. In the U.S. alone, the CDC says about 36,000 people a year die of flu-related causes. Still, the CDC calls the new strain a combination of pig, bird and human viruses for which people may have limited natural immunity.
Hence the need for a vaccine. Using samples of the flu taken from people who fell ill in Mexico and the U.S., scientists are engineering a strain that could trigger the immune system without causing illness. The hope is to get that ingredient &mdash; called a &quot;reference strain&quot; in vaccine jargon &mdash; to manufacturers around the second week of May, so they can begin their own laborious production work, said CDC's Dr. Ruben Donis, who is leading that effort.
Vaccine manufacturers are just beginning production for next winter's regular influenza vaccine, which protects against three human flu strains. The WHO wants them to stay with that course for now &mdash; it won't call for mass production of a swine flu vaccine unless the outbreak worsens globally. But sometimes new flu strains pop up briefly at the end of one flu season and go away only to re-emerge the next fall, and at the very least there should be a vaccine in time for next winter's flu season, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the National Institutes of Health's infectious diseases chief, said Tuesday. 

Courtesy of new.yahoo.com]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/734/First_US_Swine_Flu_Death_</link>
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			<pubDate>Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:44:39 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>Supreme Court rules against TV swearing</title>
			<description><![CDATA[The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that federal regulators have the authority to  clamp down on broadcast TV networks that air isolated cases of profanit[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that federal regulators have the authority to  clamp down on broadcast TV networks that air isolated cases of profanity, known  as &quot;fleeting expletives.&quot;





The Supreme Court ruled  federal regulators can stop TV networks from airing profanity.






The 5-4 vote was a victory for Bush-era officials who pushed  fines and sanctions when racy images and language reached the airwaves.
Controversial words have been aired in scripted and  unscripted instances on all the major over-the-air networks in the past six  years, when the Federal Communications Commission began considering a stronger,  no-tolerance policy.
&quot;It suffices the new policy is permissible under the  statute, there are good reasons for it, and the agency believes it to be  better,&quot; Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority.
The high court, however, refused to decide whether the  commission's policy violates the First Amendment guarantee of free speech. It  ruled only on the agency's enforcement power. The justices ordered the  free-speech aspect to be reviewed again by a federal appeals court.
ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox were parties in the case. A federal  appeals court in New York had ruled in their favor, calling the commission's  policy &quot;arbitrary and capricious.&quot;
The commission then appealed to the Supreme  Court, seeking restoration of its power to penalize the networks airing  &quot;indecent&quot; speech, even if it is broadcast only one time, and even if it does  not describe a specific sex act.
The high court agreed to some extent. &quot;Even when used as an  expletive, the F-word's power to insult and offend derives from its sexual  meaning,&quot; wrote Scalia.
Such language is heard with greater, albeit varying,  frequency on cable television, the Internet, and satellite radio, which do not  use public airwaves. But the federal government is charged with responding to  viewer complaints when &quot;indecent&quot; language reaches broadcast television and  radio, which is subject to greater regulation. That is especially relevant  during daytime and early evening hours, when larger numbers of families and  younger viewers may be watching.
The communications commission formally reversed its policy  in March 2004 to declare even a single use of an expletive could be illegal.
The changes became known as the &quot;Golden Globes Rule,&quot; for  singer Bono's 2003 acceptance speech at the awards show on NBC, where he uttered  the phrase &quot;really, really, f---ing brilliant.&quot;
The commission specifically cited celebrities Cher and  Nicole Richie for potty-mouth language in the 2002 and 2003 Billboard Music  Awards, which aired on Fox. Richie, in an apparent scripted moment said, &quot;Have  you ever tried to get cow s--t out of a Prada purse? It's not so f---ing  simple.&quot;
The complaint against ABC involved  &quot;NYPD Blue,&quot; a now-canceled scripted police drama, and the CBS' complaint  involved &quot;The Early Show,&quot; a news and interview program.
Enforcement of the law had been put on hold while the case  was being argued.
In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said &quot;customs of  speech&quot; made the Federal Communications Commission's position unworkable.
&quot;As any golfer who has watched his partner shank a short  approach knows, it would be absurd to accept the suggestion that the resultant  four-letter word uttered on the golf course describes sex or excrement and is  therefore indecent,&quot; he wrote. &quot;But that is the absurdity the FCC has embraced  in its new approach to indecency.&quot;
The Supreme Court first ventured into the broadcast speech  debate in 1978, when it ruled as indecent a monologue by comedian George Carlin  on society's taboo surrounding &quot;seven dirty words.&quot; The bit had received some  radio airplay. Stevens, 89, was the author of that opinion.
Time  Warner -- the parent company of CNN -- filed an amicus brief supporting the  networks fined by the communications commission. The company is part owner of  the CW broadcast network, and operates several cable networks.
Source: CNN Supreme Court rules against TV swearing]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/733/Supreme_Court_rules_against_TV_swearing_</link>
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			<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:49:43 -0400</pubDate>
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			<title>Official who OK'd NYC flyby accused of 'felony stupidity'</title>
			<description><![CDATA[After a YouTube video showed panicked New Yorkers scrambling as a Boeing 747 flew frighteningly close to the lower Manhattan skyline, a former Homelan[...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[After a YouTube video showed panicked New Yorkers scrambling as a Boeing 747 flew frighteningly close to the lower Manhattan skyline, a former Homeland Security adviser questioned whether the man who approved the flyby should remain in his White House office.

Witnesses reported seeing a plane circle over the Upper New York Bay near the Statue of Liberty.
Fran Townsend, who advised President George W. Bush for more than three years, called the move &quot;crass insensitivity&quot; in the wake of 9/11.
&quot;I'd call this felony stupidity. This is probably not the right job for Mr. Caldera to be in if he didn't understand the likely reaction of New Yorkers, of the mayor,&quot; Townsend said Tuesday on CNN's &quot;American Morning.&quot;
Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office, quickly apologized for Monday's incident after the planes prompted workers and residents to evacuate buildings in New York and New Jersey.
&quot;Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision,&quot; Caldera said. &quot;While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it's clear that the mission created confusion and disruption.&quot;
The Federal Aviation Administration said the aircraft, which functions as Air Force One when the president is aboard, was taking part in a classified, government-sanctioned photo shoot.
An angry Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it &quot;defies the imagination&quot; that an agency would schedule the photo shoot so near the site of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.
President Obama also reportedly expressed outrage. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said the FAA's decision to not announce the flyby &quot;borders on being either cruel or very, very stupid.&quot;
Witnesses reported seeing the plane circle over the Upper New York Bay near the Statue of Liberty before flying up the Hudson River.
The YouTube video shows dozens of people standing in a parking lot, watching the plane approach. As it nears, they begin to run. Someone unleashes an expletive. &quot;Run, run!&quot; says one person. &quot;Oh my God,&quot; cries another.
Two officials said the White House Military Office was trying to update its file photos of Air Force One. The officials said the president was angry when he learned Monday afternoon about the flight.
&quot;The president was furious about it,&quot; one of the officials said.
On Tuesday, Obama told reporters, &quot;It was a mistake. It was something we found out about along with all of you. And it will not happen again.&quot;
&quot;I'm annoyed -- furious is a better word -- that I wasn't told,&quot; he said, calling the FAA's decision to withhold details about the flight &quot;ridiculous&quot; and &quot;poor judgment.&quot;
&quot;Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo op right around the site of the World Trade Center defies the imagination,&quot; he said. &quot;Had we known, I would have asked them not to.&quot;
Linda Garcia-Rose, a social worker who counsels post-traumatic stress disorder patients in an office three blocks from where the World Trade Center stood, called the flight an &quot;absolute travesty.&quot;
&quot;There was no warning. It looked like the plane was about to come into us,&quot; she said. &quot;I'm a therapist, and I actually had a panic attack.&quot;
Garcia-Rose, who works with nearly two dozen patients ages 15 to 47, said she was inundated with phone calls from patients.
&quot;They're traumatized. They're asking 'How could this happen?' They're nervous. Their anxiety levels are high,&quot; she said
Garcia-Rose said she is considering filing a class-action suit against the government for sanctioning the plane's unannounced flight.
&quot;I believe the government has done something really wrong,&quot; she said.

Capt. Anna Carpenter of Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland said local law enforcement agencies and the FAA had been given notice of the exercise.
New York Police Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne said the department had been alerted about the flight &quot;with directives to local authorities not to disclose information about it.&quot;]]></content:encoded>			<link>http://www.instantbreakingnews.com/article/732/Official_who_OK'd_NYC_flyby_accused_of_'felony_stupidity'</link>
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			<pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2009 13:40:50 -0400</pubDate>
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